The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.

Wayfaring Stranger

It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.

The Jealous Kind

On its surface, life in Houston in the 1950s is as you'd expect: stoic fathers, restless teens, drive-in movies, and souped-up Cadillacs. But underneath lies a world shifting under high school junior Aaron Broussard's feet. There's a class war between the "haves" and the "have-nots" as well as a real war, Korea, happening on the other side of the world. It is against this backdrop that Aaron comes of age, trying to understand how first loves, friendship, violence, and power can alter what "traditional America" means for the people trying to find their way in a changing world.

Two for Texas

This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.

The Lost Get-Back Boogie

Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.

To the Bright and Shining Sun

In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye: A Harry Bosch Novel, Book 21

Harry Bosch is California's newest private investigator. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have an office, and he's picky about who he works for, but it doesn't matter. His chops from 30 years with the LAPD speak for themselves. Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The reclusive billionaire has less than six months to live and a lifetime of regrets. He hires Bosch to find out whether he has an heir.

White Doves at Morning

In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel, Book 9

The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large and very rare Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others - as Virgil is about to find out.

Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel, Book 21

It's 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he's off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind. Two other men are in the classroom - an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there. Then they find out: A jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor - a Saudi courier seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown.

The Whistler

Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined.

Half of Paradise

In this intense, fascinating story, Burke follows the lives of three young Louisiana men, each of whom finds himself in desperate circumstances. There's Avery Broussard, the last survivor of a family of once-prosperous land owners, who has a weakness for alcohol; J.P. Winfield, a poor singer and guitar player who rises to fame as a country music star, only to be destroyed by drug addiction; and Toussaint Boudreaux, a black longshoreman who moonlights as a heavyweight boxer.

An Obvious Fact

In the midst of the largest motorcycle rally in the world, a young biker is run off the road and ends up in critical condition. When Sheriff Walt Longmire and his good friend, Henry Standing Bear, are called to Hulett, Wyoming - the nearest town to America's first national monument, Devils Tower - to investigate, things start getting complicated.

Razor Girl: A Novel

When Lane Coolman's car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an ordinary accident is anything but (this is Hiaasen!). Behind the wheel of the other car is Merry Mansfield - the eponymous Razor Girl - and the crash scam is only the beginning of events that spiral crazily out of control while unleashing some of the wildest characters Hiaasen has ever set loose.

The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch - hero, maverick, nighthawk - the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal. The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell.

Home: Myron Bolitar Series, Book 11

A decade ago, kidnappers grabbed two boys from wealthy families and demanded ransom, then went silent. No trace of the boys ever surfaced. For 10 years their families have been left with nothing but painful memories and a quiet desperation for the day that has finally, miraculously arrived: Myron Bolitar and his friend Win believe they have located one of the boys, now a teenager. Where has he been for 10 years, and what does he know about the day, more than half a life ago, when he was taken?

Ricki says:"I have so missed Myron and Win and now they are back. Yeah"

The Highwayman: A Longmire Story

When Wyoming highway patrolman Rosey Wayman is transferred to the beautiful and imposing landscape of the Wind River Canyon, an area the troopers refer to as no-man's-land because of the lack of radio communication, she starts receiving "officer needs assistance" calls. The problem? They're coming from Bobby Womack, a legendary Arapaho patrolman who met a fiery death in the canyon almost a half century ago.

No Man's Land: John Puller Series

John Puller's mother disappeared nearly 30 years ago. Despite an intensive search and investigation, she was never seen again. But new allegations have come to light suggesting that Puller's father - now suffering from dementia and living in a VA hospital - may have murdered his wife. Puller is officially barred from working on the case and faces a potential court-martial if he disobeys the order, but he knows he can't sit this investigation out.

Publisher's Summary

"America's best novelist" (The Denver Post) and "the reigning champ of nostalgia noir" (The New York Times Book Review) introduces his most evil character yet in the 20th thriller in the bestselling Dave Robicheaux series.

A New York Times bestselling author many times over, James Lee Burke is a two-time Edgar Award-winner whose every book is cause for excitement, especially those in the wildly popular Dave Robicheaux series.

In Light of the World, sadist and serial killer Asa Surrette narrowly escaped the death penalty for the string of heinous murders he committed while capital punishment was outlawed in Kansas. But following a series of damning articles written by Dave Robicheaux’s daughter Alafair about possible other crimes committed by Surette, the killer escapes from a prison transport van and heads to Montana - where an unsuspecting Dave happens to have gone to take in the sweet summer air, accompanied by Alafair, his wife Molly, faithful partner Clete, and Clete’s newfound daughter, Gretchen Horowitz, whom listeners met in Burke’s most recent bestseller Creole Belle.

"James Lee Burke remains the heavy weight champ," says New York Times bestseller Michael Connelly, "a great American novelist whose work...is unsurpassed." The master proves it once again with this harrowing novel that examines the nature of evil and pits Dave Robicheaux against the most diabolical villain he has ever faced.

There is not much to add to the praise that's already been written19 times before for the Dave Robicheaux novels, and the consistency and magnificence of James Lee Burke -- an American treasure. With Light of the World, Burke gives readers the 20th DR novel since debuting the Louisiana Sheriff Detective in Neon Rain, in 1987. Ardent fans have gone through every imaginable crime scenario with Robicheaux; amazingly, Burke still imagines new and even more menacing trouble for Dave and long-time partner Clete as they continue their unorthodox battle to wipe out the bad guys and defend justice. This time around that bad guy is a sadistic serial killer, and when he sets out to settle an old score by snuffing out the light in Dave's world...the bayou buddies are in rare form.

Barely on the mend from their last shoot-out (Creole Belle), the guys and their families travel across the map to big sky country in Montana for some much-needed R & R. Everything seems perfect for a vacation of fishing and relaxing until an arrow whizzes by Alafair while she is hiking a trail, missing her by a cat's whisker. Dave doesn't think the shot was a mistake, and launches into an investigation that steps on the local sheriff's toes, especially when he comes across some alarming reports of recently missing young women. The little arrow incident seems to be connected to the abductions and quickly Dave and Clete are on their own trail of a different kind. Daughters Alafair and Gretchen Horowitz (always written with her surname for some reason) show they are chip-ettes off the ol' blocks, fearlessly following in their father's footsteps. The action starts before the dust can settle on their sleeping bags, and is continuous as the two daddy/daughter tag teams fight probably the darkest character they have faced. As always with a DR story, the evil has deep reaching roots, and there are no limits to what those involved will do to achieve their dark goals.

If you think this will be more of the same stuff, the daughters are a spicy blast adding a whole new dimension that rejuvenates and redefines team Robicheaux/Purcell. The pair have started to show some signs of wear and tear as the books have gone on -- one or both of them have crawled away from battles, seemingly on their last breath -- but they always come back like a pair of Phoenixes. Burke keeps the two lawmen as sharp as ever instead of a dwindling pair of has-beens ready to turn the family business over to the next generation. After 19 adventures, it wouldn't seem right to put the boys out to pasture just tired old shadows of one of the greatest detective teams in literature. In Alafair and Gretchen, Burke has created a new team that has inherited all the traits of their fathers, but not drained them (...it would be fun to see Burke's own daughter Alafair, a crime writer and professor of law, pick up this female pair and keep them in the family...just thinking out loud.)

At age 76, Burke may be taking after his own creations...he just seems to get better with age. Will Patton is as essential to the DR novels as the Louisiana bayou is to Robicheaux; he is almost a character -- a riveting narrator. It's an achievement to write as many award-winning best sellers as Burke -- it's amazing that he continues to entertain us with his hallmark beautiful prose and his endless imagination. *[This is the 20th book about DR, but not a chronological series so you can jump in anywhere, anytime.]

This was my first Burke and I can tell that there is a lot of character backstory that I have missed. That being said I enjoyed the story and most of the characters. I found Clete's daughter, Gretchen, a little unrealistic, but there again I may just be missing vital backstory. I know everyone raves about Will Patton, he was good but I had a hard time differentiating his female characters voices. All in all a good listen and I will read reviews of his past works to choose another.